LEAH GARCHIK

Columbus Day is politically incorrect; Indigenous People's Day is overcorrect. At Piedmont Middle School, Monday was Non-Teacher/Non-Student Workday. Fine, but why not Teacher Student Non-Workday?

"If there are airplanes flying overhead," said
Gary Scruggs
from the Banjo Stage on Saturday, "wave at 'em." Four planes flew overhead, and we waved. Over at the
Star Stage
,
T Bone Burnett
was playing an electric set when Angels streaked to and fro. On the to, the finger was raised; on the fro, Burnett cracked, "That's my manager in the airplane." The mood varied from stage to stage, and at one point,
Billy Bragg
went on so much about politics that some listeners wanted less musing and more music. But it was hard to be impatient when he was so positive about California. We lap that right up. "I've never seen so many people driving Toyota Priuses," he said. "This is America! You are driving little

cars
!" On Sunday, Coward Brothers Elvis Costello and Burnett were so mellow that they even sang the cornball intro to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" as a lead-in to the old warhorse "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair").

It was all very crowded, and every person who owns a big dog was dragging it through the crowd. Many music lovers may have even borrowed four-legged accessories for a bring-along-the-livestock bluegrassy effect. As for me, I was taken with the little girls. (Didn't see many boys. It's a stereotype, but maybe they were looking at the Blue Angels.) The girls were all over the place, and almost every one of them was dancing and spinning and deliriously out of control. Young enough to dance without worrying how they looked, they were drunk on the music. For those listening, and watching them, the euphoria was contagious. Thank you, Warren Hellman.

"At the age of 17,"
Marjorie Stern
's son, Peter, said at her memorial service at Temple Emanu-El last week, "Mother adopted an eccentric hairstyle." A few low giggles rippled through the audience. "And then she kept it for the rest of her life." The response turned to laughter. Stern knew what she wanted and wouldn't let go; her coif was thus a small indication of of her character, which was strong. "She came from a long line of mules," is what was said at the service.

Gladys Thacher, who worked with her on getting a new Main Library built, recalls arriving in San Francisco in the late '50s, "when I was plucked by Marjorie as a likely volunteer." Stern was already envisioning a library, and strategy was being planned over many ladies' teas. One day, Stern invited Thacher to accompany her to City Hall, an excursion planned just after the supervisors' lunch, so "they would be relaxed," willing to sit back and listen. "Well, I'll tell you Marjorie was a driving force. She hammered away at one supervisor, and he was, like in the paper, the little man snoozing in his chair. By the time Marjorie was finished with him, he was overwhelmed. I think that hairdo was her kind of helmet when she went into battle.

"She was always made up, and she would always look you directly in the eye like some kind of rooster waiting to attack. ... She gave me the spirit I needed to learn in San Francisco that women meant business. These women who were socially well connected weren't just Lady Bountifuls; they were Warrior Bountifuls."

In celebration of PR man
David Landis
' 50th birthday, friends and competitors filled AsiaSF on Saturday. Among the latter:
David Perry
,
Jon Finck
, Pat Kilduff, Cynthia Bowman (ret.),
Denise Lamott
, Charly Zukow, Nancy Fox,
Karen Ames
and
Kenny Wardell
. Their names aren't often in the paper because their work is to get other people's names, events, performances, happenings into the paper. They're often after the same business, but on Saturday, they were side by side, downing Bloody Marys and admiring the va-va-va-voom tranny waitstaff. I went as a pal of the host, and I wasn't going to write about it, but there must have been PR mojo going on. I can't help myself, and here's a hug in print for the birthday boy and all his loving comrades.
--
Helen Mirren
was charming and beautiful at Saturday night's Mill Valley Film Festival tribute to her (and showing of "The Queen"), but as to proclaiming her oneness with the locals -- as performers at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass did -- well, the English have a kind of reserve. Spy
Adrienne Biggs
says when Mirren was asked whether she'd been to the Bay Area before, she said, "Oh yes, I was here in 1967, the Summer of Love. ... But I was never into that earth mother thing."

-- The spy wasn't sure whether her ears were lying, and she was right to be suspect. A few "Jeopardy" fans said the answer/question wasn't about "hos" but about "homies."

Public eavesdropping

"I don't care what you want. You have to adapt to Mommy and Daddy's lifestyle."

Mother to whining daughter, walking on beach on island of Coronado (Mexico), overheard by Katherine Lincoln.